Weekly Reports on Pattaya activities, 9th January 2000

Weekly Reports on Pattaya activities

9th January 2000

Summary:

• Mandate Comeback Bar closed, for sale.
• Jolly Boy Boys Bar closed — temporarily, permanently?
• Splash now open; features boys in swimming pool with mirror
• Speed Boy Boys Club closed; Speed Pub(downstairs) has male waiters and staff available for off
• Snow in BoyzTown gets Pattaya Mail full-page coverage, plus
• Icon Calendar now available’ great pix of good looking guys

COMEBACK / MANDATE BAR CLOSED; UP FOR SALE

The greatly remodeled and upgraded Mandate/Comeback bar at Center Condotel on South Pattaya Road has closed again, after being open only a few months. The bar, which had been made into a very comfortable, pleasant bar, apparently never attracted the crowds expected, and is now posted with a “for sale” sign. Although many of us had found it a very pleasant, relaxing place to spend time, it had never really “caught on” with the public, and despite trying a system of having the “boys” available to dance with customers, in addition to the regular “a go go” system, still could not survive. The original owner had spent a small fortune fixing the place up and then had it open only a few nights; the second owner spent additional funds fixing it up to his tastes, but all to no avail. Although the cabaret in the same location continues to thrive, Mandate/Comeback seemed doomed to failure, when even at “high season”, very small numbers of customers were in the bar at any given time.

JOLLY BOYS BAR, ON FOURTH LEVEL OF JOLLY BOY BUILDING, DAY NIGHT AREA, CLOSED — TEMPORARILY?

A frequent customer at Boys Studio and Jolly Boy Boys Bar advises that the bar was closed a couple of nights this past week, but whether just temporarily could not be determined. The “boys” at Boys Studio, next door to, and owned by the same ownership group as Jolly Boy, indicated to our reporter that the bar was “closed”, but did not indicate whether that closure was only temporary or permanent. (See Map of Day-Night Sois 1 – 3, in www.pattayagay.com/ ) The Studio Group web site still includes Jolly Boy Boys Bar , www.gaypattaya.com/ , and still features Jolly Boy on its website, so we hope the closure is only temporary. The closure followed by just a few days the opening of the Studio Group’s new bar, Boy Zone, in the Sunee Plaza area, which is offering a late hours location for people to visit following the closing of most other bars. Boy Zone remains open from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

SPLASH BAR NOW OPEN IN BOYZ TOWN; OFFERS GO GO BOYS PLUS SWIMMING SHOW IN MIRRORED POOL

The long awaited opening of Splash Bar, situated between Le Cafe Royale and Throb Bar, directly across the street from Boyz Boyz Boyz in Pattayaland Soi 3, took place January 3, and drew a good crowd on opening night despite little publicity. The bar, featuring a large swimming pool area right behind a walkway on which go-go boys dance, has two boys swimming in the pool, and playing and swimming to the music, in an artistic manner, had originally been scheduled for opening in December, 1998. However, Splash is now open, and the boys swimming extends the offerings of the BoyzTown area in the entertainment business. (See Map of Pattayaland District in www.pattayagay.com/ )

The swimmers are now wearing only underpants or g-strings, and there is a lot of erotic contact between the swimmers, but no outright nudity or sexual play. With Octopus Club (see Map for Icon-Octopus district) offering a similar swimming scene, and having opened long before Splash, the impact of Splash’s opening is somewhat lessened, but it still adds a new dimension to those visitors who prefer staying in the “downtown” area.

SPEED BOY BOYS BAR A GO GO CLOSED; PUB DOWNSTAIRS REMAINS OPEN, “BOYS” CAN GO OFF

The attempt to “stretch” the gay area a little further out South Pattaya Road, exemplified by the opening of Speed Boy Boys Bar on Third Road near South Pattaya Road, had ended with the closing of Speed Boy Boys Bar, on the upper level of the structure which also houses Speed Pub, a bar for everyone, at the ground level. Speed Pub remains open, and the boys who had been working at the Boys Bar are now available as waiters and hosts at the Speed Pub. However, although the boys are available to go “off”, the bar is not a “gay bar”, but a bar where everyone is welcome.

SNOW IN BOYZTOWN GETS PATTAYA MAIL FULL PAGE COVERAGE

The snow making machines and the Christmas season ambiance that the Ambiance Group brought to the BoyzTown area on Christmas Eve, received a full page coverage in the Pattaya Mail, Pattaya’s weekly English language newspaper. “WHITE CHRISTMAS IN BOYZTOWN” , says the banner head on page 7 of the Pattaya Mail for Friday 7 January 2000. The page has eight color photos of the celebration in the BoyzTown area, several featuring “Madame Jim”, co-owner of Ambiance Hotel and its affiliated entities, dressed up as “Madame Claus”. The photos show Madame Claus presenting gifts to Ambiance group employees’ children, and with others joining in the celebration, and other shots featuring Madame Jim with Gordon, the other owner. “Snow and benevolence fall on Boyztown”, the caption to one photo reads, showing the “snow” falling while children mill around getting their gifts. Apparently, “snow” had been presented by the Ambiance Hotel group last year, also, but it didn’t get anywhere near the attention that the “snowing” got this year.

Despite the highly unseasonably cold weather, it did not dampen the crowd’s spirits, and perhaps even added a little “snap” to the holiday scene. The Ambiance Hotel group includes ownership of the hotel, its coffee shop, Boyz Boyz Boyz A Go Go Bar, Throb Bar, Splash Bar, and the Body Club Fitness Center. (See Map of the BoyzTown area, in the Pattayaland District Map of www.pattagay.com/ )

ICON CALENDAR NOW AVAILABLE; FEATURES GREAT PIX OF MANY OF THE BEST DANCERS

After too long a delay, I finally got around to Icon tonight and picked up a copy of the new Calendar, Icon the Calendar. It features twelve photos of fine looking young men. The lead choreographer, Tom, is “Mr. January”, one of my favorites, Joe (who I think is the best dancer) is the guy for March, Nung is Mr. April, Tor is Mr. October, Nung and one other guy whom I don’t know by name share the November spotlight, and seven of the newer guys share the slot for December. A gallery of handsome young Thai gentlemen. They sell for 250 baht, and, although I had understood they would be available at Bookazine and other book stores, I couldn’t find it at the Bookazine in Royal Garden Plaza, which had seemingly hundreds of calendars to choose from, nor at the bookstore I so often go to on Soi Post Office. So I picked one up at the hotel tonight. Very nice, very classy. They are desk type calendars, rather than wall calendars, and basically are the white on black that Icon uses as its colors, except that the photographs are in full living color. William, one of the owners, had indicated they would be available through their website, www.iconhotel.com/ , but when I checked earlier, I could find no mention of them on the web site but I may have overlooked something.

That’s it for this week, guys.

Gay Pattayan January 9, 2000

E-mail: GayPattayan@pattayagay.com